Did the polish home army remain active in soviet occupied territory following the German retreat?

by bobdebildar
Noble_Devil_Boruta

Yes, it did, although it should be noted that the Polish underground was not uniform and the specific organizations were more or less formed along the political lines, with some militant organizations being affiliated with specific political parties. Anti-communist partisan movement was primarily a continuation of the resistance against German occupation, as the apparent attitude of the Soviet government and actions of the NKVD in Poland were interpreted as the signs of the new occupation rather than liberation by the militant organizations allied with the centrist, right-wing and moderate left-wing politic movements (Home Army, the largest underground organization was generally centrist). On the other hand, organizations allied with leftist (socialist and communist) politics, such as the People's Guard affiliated with Polish Worker's Party were supporting the Soviets and in 1944 became a part of the People's Army, an underground organization merging several others and supporting State National Council, a provisional government formed by the PWP seeking to establish communist rule based on the Soviet one. In mid-1944, People's Army merged with the Polish Army in USSR, forming Polish Armed Forces, considered an 'official' armed forces by the SNC.

In 1944, when the Soviet Army entered the territories belonging to Poland before the war that, according to the results of the Tehran conference in 1943 (that were secret at the time), Red Army, Soviet partisans and political security agencies started to oppose Polish underground fighters in an attempt to engage, disarm and detain opponents. Some of the units surrendered, others resisted, thus propelling the Soviet authorities to brand them 'criminals'. Although People's Army and Home Army often cooperated in actions taken against Germans, the animosity between the two was basically irreconcilable as State National Council considered Home Army and especially right-wing organizations (such as National Armed Forces) their political opponents and did not plan to include non-socialists in the post-war government.

The losses in operations, as well as the results of the mentioned animosities, Home Army slowly went into decline, although the particular units could still have been numerous and well-armed, commonly still formed of soldiers and officers of the Polish army who decided to continue the fight after the Third Reich occupied Poland. Largest groups, organized similarly to the regular military units could have numbered 400-500 people divided into several subunits. In the territories controlled by the Soviet Army, facing open resistance and animosity from the new provisional government, some partisans started to treat the representatives of said regime as new occupants, taking actions similar to the ones performed against Germans: disarming militia and military personnel, attacking police precincts and capturing equipment, robbing the institutions representing or supporting communist government and eliminating the officers of secret police. Rising presence of the Soviet Army and the USSR-backed Polish Armed Forces, stabilization of the situation in the areas Germans completely withdrew from (and related lack of popular support) and lack of backing from abroad quickly forced the anti-communist partisans to cease their actions or disband altogether, although the fights between them and the new government was still an issue in 1945 and 1946.

Before the parliamentary elections scheduled to 1947, where the only opposition to USSR-backed Democratic Block led by the communist Polish Worker Party was the Polish People's Party, pre-independence agrarian political entity. In January 1947, at the behest of president Bolesław Bierut, State Security Commission (an agency overseeing elimination of anti-communist elements) conducted a dragnet operation during which circa 50.000 supporters and activists of the PPP were arrested and at least 200 party members were assassinated. This was accompanied by the statewide smear campaign against the party. Furthermore, voting rights of over 400.000 citizens were authoritatively revoked, and 63% of all the local election committees were composed entirely of the PWP members, blatantly disregarding any pretense to impartiality. Despite these transgressions, US and Great Britain did not decided to intervene, cementing the de facto legitimacy of the communist government what, with the support to the Polish Government in Exile withdrawn during the Moscow Conference in June 1945, made any attempts at change of the political system in Poland essentially impossible.

Falsified elections were followed by the grand amnesty for the anti-communist resistance fighters that was declared in February 1947 and was to remain in force for only two months. Seeing that chances of changing the political situation in Poland are minimal if not completely non-existent, more than 50.000 of resistance fighters complied and reported to local delegates of the Ministry of Public Security with another 23.000 former partisans revealing their identity among people already arrested and held in prisons or concentration camps. All those seeking amnesty had to surrender all weapons and document their identity and the identity and the last known whereabouts of their former commanders. This data was later used to expose and catch hiding partisans. Despite initial promises, many former underground members were later imprisoned and executed by the authorities. This action of the MPS was an utter success, almost completely dissolving all resistance groups and neutralizing possible political opponents. Some of the resistance fighters never revealed themselves and some returned to the underground in the face of the government's duplicity, but they were too few and far between to organize any meaningful resistance. It is estimated that after April 1947, anti-communist underground numbered no more than 1800-2000 people, majority of whom were not militant fighters. Estimations of the governmental agencies name 52 groups numbering in total less than 300 people in the entire Poland, although existence of such units as 6th Vilinius Brigade composed of roughly 40 people as late as June 1948 suggests that this number could have been higher. The last anti-communist units operated until mid-1950s, although these were the single incidents, as due the relative stabilization after the war members of the militant resistance were steadily losing support even among anti-communists. One of the former partisans, Józef Franczak, has been wanted by the Security Service long after the war and was finally shot in 1963. As he has not been continuing resistance activities after 1953 it is suspected that the main reason for this was the fact that Franczak was a witness of the mass executions of Polish resistance fighters and anti-communist activists by new Polish authorities and NKVD in 1945.